Highland Legion baseball gets season stopped in District 22 championship series
On Wednesday, July 20, Highland Post 439’s senior legion baseball team wanted to win one of two games to have a chance at claiming the District 22 championship the following night.
However, Alton Post 126 had different plans and ended Highland’s season with a doubleheader loss. Alton blanked Post 439 9-0 in the first game and 11-0 in the nightcap to claim the District 22 championship series at Glik Park in Highland.
Alton improved to 18-10 with the twin-bill victory, while Highland — which won two of its last three games to enter the postseason — finished the summer at 6-14.
“You’ve got to tip your hats to Alton,” Highland manager Todd Kunz said. “They were hitting the ball and we were making our fair share of errors.”
In the first four innings of game one, Highland starter Mason Barnes was lights out as he held Post 126 scoreless.
In the bottom of the fifth, though, Alton’s lineup began to figure out Barnes the third time through the order as Post 126 struck for four runs. Alton took the lead 1-0 on an infield error that allowed Braden Arview to score from third. Nick Rayfield then walked and, with bases loaded and two out, Luke Parmentier ripped a bases-clearing double off the left field fence to make it 4-0.
“Mason Barnes was throwing a really good game in the first game and the defense kind of let him down a little bit and it got away from us,” Kunz said.
Post 126 chased Barnes in the bottom of the sixth with a five-run onslaught. Nick Williams’s two-run single to left capped the surge, giving Alton a 9-0 margin.
On the flip side, Highland’s offense struggled as Reid Koishor managed Post 439’s only hit off Alton starter Max Ontis, who fired a complete-game shutout while striking out five.
Barnes struck out six as he pitched five innings and took the loss.
In the nightcap, things did not get any better for Highland as Alton scored four runs in the first, added a seven-run outburst in the second and rolled to an easy 11-0, five-inning, 10-run mercy rule win.
“We started off the second game bad and it got worse,” Kunz said. “We were rolling and having some good games there at the end (of the regular season) and Alton (tonight) was a little too much team for us (to handle). I would have liked to have seen it end a little bit better.
“If it hadn’t gotten away so bad (in the first game) ... I think that just let the air out of everybody’s sails and then we just folded on them in the second game very early on.”
Despite committing three errors, Alton had the bats going again in the second game, outhitting Highland 14-1.
Alton starter Hayden Garner pitched five innings to earn the victory.
Joey Kunz took the loss for Highland, while Chad Barker threw an inning in relief for Post 439.
